don

\dɔ̃\

/\dɔ̃\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“don” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,589) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,589
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action d’offrir à quelqu’un quelque chose, de lui en abandonner la propriété ou présent qu’on lui fait ainsi.

Corpus desk

Index FR-don · don · French

don · rank #1,589 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,589
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH disant

Nearest frequency peer: disant (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “don”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “don” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

don vs du
33% similar
don vs dr
33% similar
don vs Ds
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for don
PropertyValue
Headworddon
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dɔ̃\
Letters3
Frequency rank#1,589
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “don” se place dans la fréquence du français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.donse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « disant » (#1,588), « découvert » (#1,590), « crédit » (#1,587). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for don is neighbouring look-alikes ("du", "dr", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \dɔ̃\. Frequency #1,589 among 5,307 “D” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for don, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "du", "dr", "Ds", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is don, spelled D-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action d’offrir à quelqu’un quelque chose, de lui en abandonner la propriété ou présent qu’on lui fait ainsi.
  2. 2
    Chose donnée.
  3. 3
    Abandon ou délaissement gratuit à quelqu’un d’un objet ainsi accordé.
  4. 4
    Donation entre conjoints de l’usufruit de leur bien, pour que le survivant en jouisse.
  5. 5
    Biens, qualités physiques ou morales, avantages qu’on reçoit à la naissance.
  6. 6
    Aptitude.
  7. 7
    Aptitude magique permettant de guérir les brûlures et autres affections de la peau.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how don appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Une campagne de crowdfunding a d’ailleurs été lancée. Le but est de réunir la maximum de dons pour aider les clubs de sauvetage côtier de Nouvelle-Aquitaine à acquérir du matériel et développer la formation des jeunes MNS.
  2. Ce livre est un don de l’auteur.

Synonyms

cadeauoffrandeaumônedonationlegsaptitude

This word in other languages

present(English)Spende(Deutsch)doação(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "don"?
"don" is spelled D-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \dɔ̃\.
What does "don" mean?
As a noun, "don" means: Action d’offrir à quelqu’un quelque chose, de lui en abandonner la propriété ou présent qu’on lui fait ainsi.
What words are commonly confused with "don"?
"don" is commonly confused with "du", "dr", "Ds". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "don"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "don" is \dɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "don" come from?
"don" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "don", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

élu#1,549âme#1,547tué#1,543mur#1,531

What to do next

You've looked up "don". Here's where to go from here.

  • "don" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "du". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #1,589 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "D" letter cohort. D–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list